Ministry of Jal Shakti
NMCG & Sahakar Bharati Organises Workshop On Natural Farming For Over 400 Farmers In Bulandshahr, U.P.
NMCG & Sahakar Bharti To Set Up At Least 75 Ganga Sahakar Grams In The Ganga Basin To Promote Natural Farming Under ‘Arth Ganga’
Concept Of Ganga Sahakar Gram Will Go A Long Way In Serving The Objective Of Sustainable Agriculture: DG, NMCG
National Mission for Clean Ganga  and Sahakar Bharati organised a ‘Vishaal Kisan Sammelan’ workshop today for more than 400 farmers at Mubarikpur Bangar village in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh. The workshop was part of the Memorandum of Understanding  between NMCG and Sahakar Bharti to set up at least 75 Ganga Sahakar Grams in the Ganga basin to promote natural farming and other interventions under Arth Ganga. The workshop/meeting was aimed at bringing together all Arth Ganga related initiatives to ensure convergence of Jalaj, natural farming, Ghat pe Haat, sludge-to-fertilizer, marketing of agricultural/horticulture produce, tourism etc.
Apart from more than 400 farmers from Uttar Pradesh, the event saw participation from district-level officials, State Mission for Clean Ganga, Uttar Pradesh, Wildlife Institute of India, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Ganga Vichar Manch and other volunteers. A field tour to the farms of farmer Upendra Nagar was also organised during which technicalities of natural farming was shown to the participating farmers and officials. Recently, from 18th to 22nd August 2022, NMCG facilitated an exposure visit of about 30 farmers from the Ganga Basin to the Subhash Palekar Natural Farming  training-cum-workshop camp being organised in Shirdi, Maharashtra.
Addressing the gathering, Director General, Shri G. Asok Kumar said that the association between NMCG and Sahakar Bharati is enabling a positive environment in the field of sustainable agriculture and zero budget natural farming. The collaboration focuses on the novel initiative of setting up Ganga Sahakar Grams in Ganga basin and no stone will be left unturned to make it into a successful model and replicate in other villages. “This initiative focuses on employment generation through natural farming and will go a long way to serve the twin objectives of sustainable agricultural development and mitigating the effects of climate change,” Shri Asok said, adding, “Many more of such workshops/meetings will be organised by NMCG in near future.”
Shri G. Asok Kumar also gave an overview of the Arth Ganga concept and said that these initiatives are being taken under Arth Ganga campaign. He touched upon the significant components of Arth Ganga including Zero Budget Natural Farming, generating “more net income, per drop”, ‘Gobar Dhan’ for farmers, monetization and reuse of Sludge & Wastewater, livelihood generation opportunities such as Jalaj, ‘Ghat Mein Haat’, promotion of local products, Ayurveda, medicinal plants, capacity building of volunteers like Ganga Praharis, public participation to ensure increased synergies between stakeholders etc. He also talked about Cultural Heritage & Tourism that looks to introduce boat tourism through community jettis, promotion of yoga, adventure tourism etc.
Shri D.N. Thakur, National President, Sahakar Bharati in his inaugural address said that Sahakar Ganga Grams is an all-encompassing programme that trains farmers in not only readying their farms but also crop diversification, how to keep crops safe, proper marketing, technical capacity building, and improve the livelihood standards of farmers.
The MoU between NMCG and Sahakar Bharti was signed in the presence of the Union Minister for Jal Shakti Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on 16th August, 2022 on the occasion of ‘Yamuna Par Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’. The MoU envisages to achieve the vision of a sustainable and viable economic development by public participation and creation and strengthening of local cooperatives directing their cooperation towards realizing the mandate of Arth Ganga. Some of the major objectives the MoU include setting up pf 75 Sahakar Ganga Grams in five states on the main stem, promote natural farming among the farmers, FPOs and Cooperatives in States along Ganga and generate ‘More net-Income Per Drop’, facilitate marketing of natural farming/organic produce under brand Ganga through creation of market linkages, promote people-river connect through economic bridge etc.